Shopping with your top suppliers is about to become a lot more convenient.

This guide shows you the quick and easy steps you need to take to set up Integrated Online Buying. Follow these steps, and you'll be ready to start placing orders using Integrated Online Buying and receiving invoices for processing instantly.

Everything you need to know about configuring Integrated Online Buying is covered here, including time-saving tricks like disabling workflows for your suppliers so that orders are sent the second you hit Purchase.

 

What is Integrated Online Buying?

Integrated Online Buying is our version of Punch Out. It lets you shop with popular suppliers from the iCompleat ordering area, submit your shopping basket for approval, and receive invoices to iCompleat for processing, matching and receipting.

 

 

Once you've set up Integrated Online Buying, you'll see the logo for each of your suppliers supported by Integrated Online Buying on the homepage, and a new Buy Online button on the order editing page when you create an order with one of those suppliers.

Both features take you straight to the supplier's online shop, where you can browse items, add them to your basket, and access your favourites - basically everything you normally do when shopping with your top suppliers.

 

 

When you've finished filling your basket, the normal checkout button takes you to the iCompleat order editing page, with the contents of your shopping basket converted into line items that you can code before submitting the order straight to the supplier. 

 

 

What suppliers integrate with iCompleat?

iCompleat integrates with the following cXML suppliers:

• Amazon Business
• Browns Books
• Commercial by Natura
• Lyreco
• McMaster-Carr
• Misumi
• Office Depot
• Office Team
• Staples
• StemCell Technologies
• Thermo-Fisher
• WB Mason
• YPO

 

1. Activate Integrated Online Buying

If Integrated Online Buying isn't already active for your iCompleat account, you just need to add it to your iCompleat subscription plan. If you have more than one company in your iCompleat account, this will activate it for all of your companies.

To access your subscription plan & activate Integrated Online Buying, follow these steps.

Integrated Online Buying is on by default during your free trial period.

 

1. Go to your user menu, & click Subscription Options.
2. Next to Your Plan, click Edit.
3. Select On from the iCompleatBuy drop-down.

   The cost of your subscription plan updates in the Summary on the right.

   
4. Click Continue.
5. (Optional) Your default billing address & card details are displayed.

   Edit any fields if you'd like to use a different payment method &/or billing address on this occasion.

   
6. In the Send Invoice To drop-down, ensure the iCompleat company you'd like the invoice sent to is selected.
7. When you're happy with your payment details, click Pay securely.
8. Your subscription updates instantly, & Integrated Online Buying is now activated for all companies in your account.
9. You now need to quickly sync your finance system connection so that iCompleat can check for Punchout suppliers in your finance system.

   Return to the homepage, & click Configuration.

10. Click Company management.
11. Go to Connection.
12. Click Sync Now.
13. If your Punchout suppliers are saved in your finance system under a verified name, you'll see their logos on the iCompleat homepage, & you can now continue to 3. Enter your suppliers' Integrated Online Buying credentials.

    If you don't see any of your suppliers' logos on the homepage, continue to the second step below to manually select them.

 

2. Manually sync supplier names

If you don't see the Amazon Business logo on the homepage, you need to manually sync your supplier names so that the system knows they're a verified Integrated Online Buying supplier.

To manually sync supplier names, follow these steps.

 

1. On the homepage, select Configuration.
2. Select Company management.
3. Go to Integrated Online Buying.
4. Next to Manually sync integrated online buying vendors, click the configure icon.From the Supplier drop-down, select the supplier name from your accounting software.
5. From the Punchout Supplier drop-down, select the name of the Punchout supplier in iCompleat.
6. (Optional) If you're setting up multiple suppliers, select the plus (+) icon to manually sync another supplier.
7. When you've manually synced all the relevant suppliers, click Save.

 

Nice job!

Your suppliers are now enabled for Integrated Online Buying. Continue to 3. Enter your suppliers' Integrated Online Buying credentials.

 

3. Enter your suppliers' Integrated Online Buying credentials

Now that your iCompleat account is ready to use Integrated Online Buying, the next step is to enter some unique credentials so that iCompleat can integrate with your suppliers' websites & your account with them.

Click a supplier below to see how to access their credentials & enter them in iCompleat. When you're done, we'll bring you back to this guide to finish configuring Integrated Online Buying.

Amazon Business

Browns Books

Lyreco

YPO

 

4. Choose how orders are sent to your suppliers

You have three options for how iCompleat sends fully approved orders to individual suppliers:

• Automatically email fully approved order PDFs to the supplier
• Automatically send orders to the supplier electronically
• Switch off the automatic sending of orders to the supplier, & download them to send manually

Currently, Lyreco & YPO don't support electronic ordering, so the best option is for iCompleat to automatically email fully approved order PDFs to those suppliers.

To choose how iCompleat sends fully approved orders to your Integrated Online Buying suppliers, follow these steps for each supplier.

 

1. On the homepage, click Configuration.
2. Click Manage events.
3. From the What type of transaction drop-down, select Orders.
4. From the What event do you want to manage? drop-down, select A transaction has been fully approved.
5. In the left-hand menu, go to Send transaction to the supplier.
6. Select a supplier from the Supplier Configuration drop-down.
7. You can now take one of three actions depending on how you'd like fully approved orders to be submitted to the supplier:

   i.  Switch the Send purchase order PDF to this supplier toggle to No, & switch the Send purchase order to the supplier electronically toggle to No.

   This means that you'll have to manually download fully approved order PDFs for this supplier, & email them to the supplier outside of iCompleat.

   ii.  Switch off the Send purchase order PDF to this supplier toggle, & switch on the Send purchase order to the supplier electronically toggle.

   This means that fully approved orders for this supplier will be automatically submitted via your associated account held with the supplier.

   

   iv.  Switch on the Send purchase order PDF to this supplier toggle.

   Then, switch the Email Address toggle to Use Other or Use finance email depending on whether you'd like fully approved orders to be sent to the email address you have saved against the supplier, or to a different email address.

   If you don't have an email address saved for the supplier in your connected accounting software or reference data, you'll need to manually enter one.

   
8. Click Save to apply your changes.

 

Great!

iCompleat now knows how, & where, to send your fully approved orders. Let's do some more customizing!

 

5. Switch off workflows for your suppliers

Switching off workflows for your Integrated Online Buying suppliers means that your orders will be sent straight to the supplier as soon as you've finished creating them, without needing approval from a workflow.

When you add an Integrated Online Buying-enabled supplier in iCompleat, the Require workflow approval permission is switched on for that supplier by default. This means that iCompleat order creators will have to submit their Integrated Online Buying orders with that supplier to a workflow for approval.

With the permission switched off for a supplier, order creators will see a Purchase button instead of the usual workflow options, which skips approval & sends the order straight to the supplier.

To switch off workflows for a supplier, follow these steps.

 

1. On the homepage, click Configuration.
2. Click Company management.
3. Go to Purchase ordering.
4. Next to Configure integrations with suppliers, click Configure.
5. Next to the relevant Punchout supplier, click Change.
6. Switch off the Require workflow approval toggle.
7. Click Save.

 

6. Create order layouts for your suppliers

Creating an order layout for each supplier lets you choose exactly which fields your order creators can view & code.

If you're using Integrated Online Buying with multiple suppliers, you'll need to create a separate order layout for each of them.

To create a layout for a supplier, follow these steps.

 

1. On the homepage, click Configuration.
2. Click Manage layouts.
3. Click Add Layout, & then click Order.
4. Enter a Name & Code (up to five characters) for your layout.
5. (Optional) Switch on the Active toggle so that the layout will be available as soon as you've created it.

   You can switch this off or on at any time.

   
6. Select a Layout for invoices from the drop-down.

   When an invoice arrives that matches an order using your new order layout, iCompleat will apply the selected invoice layout to it.

   

7. From the Link layout to specific supplier drop-down, select the supplier.

8. Click Save Layout.

9. A dialog box appears asking if you're sure you'd like to link the layout to a supplier.

   Click Yes.

10. Go to Field Configuration, & use the toggles & drop-downs to select which fields will appear on the layout, & whether they will be at line or header level.

    The fields you see may vary depending on any additional custom fields that are set up.

    

11. Click Save Layout.
12. Go to Settings Groups, & click New settings group.
    

    Settings groups let you set default coding & restrict the codes available to different groups of users on a layout. For example, your Marketing users may want different account coding to be defaulted on all orders compared to your Customer Services users. A user needs to be assigned to a settings group to be able to use your order layout.

     

13. Enter a Name & Code (up to five characters) for the settings group.
14. Some of the fields on your layout can be edited further for this settings group, such as the Currency Code & Account Code.

    Select the fields you'd like to edit.

    Then, choose a Default Value, & switch the Restrict values offered? toggle on or off.

15. Click Assign Users.
16. Select a user to add to the settings group from the drop-down, then click he black plus (+) icon.

    Repeat this step to add more users.

17. Click OK.
18. Click Save Settings Group.
19. Click Save Layout.

 

That’s it!

You’ve successfully set up Integrated Online Buying & configured all of the settings in your account so that it will run like clockwork.

 

Next: Create your first order >>